@Paul Owens: to save humanity, jesus will you get out from under your bed, you are the clo wn here,

@Paul Owens: From William Nordhaus, the 2018 Nobel prize winner.
In a January 2020 interview with Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Nordhaus claimed that achieving the 2°C goal of the Paris agreement was “impossible”, stating that “even if we make the fastest possible turn towards zero emissions, CO2 will continue to accumulate in the atmosphere, because we cannot simply shut down our economy”. He also remarked that the two-degree target was set without reference to the costs of meeting the target.

@Verners Tess: thats why we have to remove carbon from the atmosphere at an enormous rate as well as reduce our carbon output to near zero. It’s a huge task but either we do this or we very likely will end up killing everything on the planet.

@Verners Tess: ah ok, well let’s give up and let humanity destroy itself so. Because someone said we shouldn’t bother.
The EU is one of the largest global emitters, which is why we COLLECTIVELY have decided that member states (of which we’re one of the worst culprits) should reduce emissions. Yet, some still present the argument that we should freeload off the back of others that carry the burden. I might give up my job right now and start living off the dole. Your types clearly have no problem with that and what difference will it make?

@Urban Living Dublin: Can you clarify what are my types? Thanks

@Verners Tess: freeloaders

@Urban Living Dublin: Expand please?

@Verners Tess: If we all took the same attitude to voting, where would we be????. Every vote counts and every small contribution to the collective effort to fight this climate disaster counts. Someone has to take the initiative and lead by example… We have no other choice!!!! Do we want to be part of the solution or as I heard someone say yesterday… Part of the Pollution.

@Urban Living Dublin: You need to calm lad as you are starting into unhinged territory (lately) as your tweets are becoming panicked and reactionary. Yes we need to do more but with that said the government has been dragging its feet as it’s a calamity. In my humble opinion this just may become the death nail I sincerely hope it gets. The Greens to be honest are the only ones with a plan and if Polls are to be believed SF need to recognize that. Respectfully.

@Jerriko17: I own a plug in hybrid car, work outside where I don’t use any electrical or fossil fuelled powered equipment, cycle most places locally. Thanks

@Verners Tess: sure. you seem to suggest in your original post that because our contribution to global emissions is relatively small, any effort we make to reduce them will have minimal effect, implying that we shouldn’t bother making those changes. This not only violates the agreements we signed up to but also forces other countries to carry out water. It’s an attitude that is little different than someone deciding they should sponge off the and not bother to look for work when they can because “what difference would it make anyway”. In most people’s books this would be considered freeloading.

@Urban Living Dublin: I own a plug in hybrid car, have 1 child, work outside where I don’t use any electrical or fossil fuelled powered equipment, cycle most places locally. I also run a lot. If your carbon footprint is lower than mine, well done.
I know what your types are….arrogant, pretentious snobs assuming you are better than the rest of us.

@Verners Tess: bar the car and child, our lifestyles may not be that different.
It has little to do with arrogance or snobbery (as a Dublin north inner city resident I’m not sure I’d survive as a snob). What baffles me is how often the me fein argument is thrown whenever it is suggested we should do something about our carbon emissions, which on a per capita basis are some of the highest in the world. Call it entitlement or Irish exceptionalism or whatever, but it is easy to see what the global consequences will be if all countries took a similar attitude.

@Paul Owens: And what saved humanity the last time it happened.???

@Verners Tess: why????

@Verners Tess: u will be shutting down your economy if planet earth decides,,not humans,,,u need to think way outside the box my friend,,a colleague of mine who was a very esteemed scientist told me this over breakfast 25 years ago who has now passed.You need to listen to the scientists and nobody else.

@Darren Murphy: Not the brightest my friend,,

@Verners Tess: There are people in the world who are better and a lot brighter than you,,they are the inventers,the ones who allow you to live the life u live,the cars u drive ,the planes u fly in and the phone u are using,,,u didn’t invent them not accept it and cop on

@Matthew Donoghue: Not everything, this planet will thrive again once the human race is gone.

@Verners Tess: We’ve known about Global Warming and The Greenhouse Effect is since 1896, when Savente Arrhenius first experimentally proved CO2 is a greenhouse gas (it traps the heat of the Sun).

Arrhenius, S., 1896. XXXI. On the influence of carbonic acid in the air upon the temperature of the ground. The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, 41(251), pp.237-276.

And warnings about humans burning fossil fuels causing global warming were published in newspaper articles as early as 1912:

“The furnaces of the world are now burning about 2,000,000,000 tons of coal a year. When this is burned, uniting with oxygen, it adds about 7,000,000,000 tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere yearly. This tends to make the air a more effective blanket for the earth and to raise its temperature. The effect may be considerable in a few centuries.”

They were just wrong about the time line, they thought the effect wouldn’t happen so fast.

See: This week in 1912, a newspaper printed a spot-on warning about our warming world. We’re living in the future it predicted

So our research into the greenhouse effect and global warming is not a new science, it’s something we know a lot about though our knowledge increased in the 1960 after we first noticed the planet was indeed warming, as 1900s scientists foretold.

Since the start of the industrial revolution, the burning of fossil fuels added ca. 500 billion tonnes of CO2 to the atmosphere, we’re adding another 35 billion tonnes per year.

These are facts, they aren’t up for debate.

On the other hand, Volcanoes only emit between 0.28 to 0.36 billion tonnes per year, 8-10% of what human activity releases, so no volcanoes aren’t responsible for the increasing CO2 levels.

We also can prove the increase in CO2 is ion the atmosphere is our fault from the Suess Effect, which is an alteration of the isotopic composition of CO2 in the atmosphere.

Carbon is found in three natural isotopes, atoms that differ in atomic mass, two are stable (not radioactive) and one is radioactive (created by cosmic radiation, space radiation, bombarding the upper atmosphere, generating radioactive Carbon-14 from nitrogen gas).

Critically, fossil fuels do not contain any radioactive Carbon-14 (half life of just over 5,500 years), they are millions of years ago, so all Carbon-14 decayed to zero.

As we burn fossil fuels, we dilute the atmosphere with fossil carbon dioxide, altering the stable and radioactive isotopes of carbon in the atmosphere… proving without a doubt that the rise in CO2 is from humans burning of fossil fuels.

See: The Suess Effect: Why is it important?

The 1.23 Celsius warming (see Berkeley Earth June update) in the last 120 years (0.8 Celsius warming happening since 1975) is due to CO2 we added to the atmosphere, as proven by the exact match between rising CO2 levels and the Earth’s temperature that we measure:

http://berkeleyearth.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/annual-with-forcing-small.png

… they only thing that temporarily *slows down this trend* are occasional volcanic eruptions.

(by the way, a ca. 1.25 Celsius rise in the average global temperature is a big deal, the difference between today’s fine weather and Ireland sitting under 2 km of ice at the peak of the last ice age, was a global average cooling of just 6.5 Celsius. The climate is very sensitive to temperature change).

And if its ***not CO2*** what ***natural cycle*** is responsible instead?

What natural cycle has resulted in the global average temperature of the Earth to climb to the highest its ever been in the last 130,000 years?

See: The last time Earth was this hot hippos lived in Britain that’s 130,000 years ago

Volcanic eruptions, as I just pointed out, cool the Earth rather than warm it.

The volcanic dust and especially sulfur dioxide lifted high into the atmosphere reflects the Sun’s heat out to space and temporarily slow the observed global warming. It’s not volcanoes.

It’s not the Sun either, the Sun has not gotten any brighter…

“One of the “smoking guns” that tells us the Sun is not causing global warming comes from looking at the amount of solar energy that hits the top of the atmosphere. Since 1978, scientists have been tracking this using sensors on satellites, which tell us that there has been no upward trend in the amount of solar energy reaching our planet.”

See: Is the Sun causing global warming? NASA

And the orbit of the Earth isn’t the reason either (Milankovitch cycle). The changes in the Earth’s orbit and axial tilt are far too slow, they take place over 10s and 100s of thousands years, geological time. The Milankovitch cycles cannot explain the sudden warming observed the last 100 years or so.

In fact, according to the Milankovitch Cycle, we should be very slowly cooling.

See: Fact Check-NASA did not announce that climate change is only driven by variations to Earth’s orbital position relative to the sun

And it’s not ocean currents either, the Pacific Multidecadal Oscillation and the Altanic variability in ocean currents aren’t causing the observed warming. They may have slowed warming a bit during the mid-20th century, but that’s about it.

See figure 5 in the following paper (it shows that ocean currents cannot explain the warming):

Stolpe, M.B., Medhaug, I. and Knutti, R., 2017. Contribution of Atlantic and Pacific multidecadal variability to twentieth-century temperature changes. Journal of Climate, 30(16), pp.6279-6295.

The cause of rising temperatures is rising CO2, a proven greenhouse gas, that we added to the atmosphere, 500 billion tonnes and climbing. Human burning fossil fuels are the cause of global warming and climate change.

@David Jordan: cue somone saying too long, boring, didn’t read, and getting up voted.

@David Jordan: No read a lot of it and it’s v impressive, well done

@John Fahy: Sorry John that guy David Jordan way too bright for the likes of u, period

@Dave Phelan: I love how people just blurt out list of countries (usually all of which have lower per capita emissions than Ireland) that they think are doing nothing about their own emissions.
Let me ask, on the international stage, do you think doing nothing about our own emissions will make it easier or harder to hold lagging countries’ feet to the fire?

@Urban Living Dublin: how innocent are you really? I can see China trembling at the thought of Ireland “ holding their feet to the fire” rural Ireland will be in chaos if Ryan gets his way, but then you are an urbanite and cannot understand that transport and lack of proper bus, rail, fuel, and services all impact on those producing the food for the nation. In your simplified view of urban living you cannot grasp the problems of rural Ireland and the impact on our economy ( eventually your pocket too)

@Dave Phelan: FDI and GDP only seems to benefit the Urbanite. They will have no problem using carbon credits from low intensive farms in the west of Ireland that have 100s of hectare of Sphagum rich bogland and gifting them to Big tech companies to offset their energy usage from data centres, and this creates jobs in the cities and benefits this person at the detriment to the people in rural Ireland

@Dave Phelan: thankfully we are part of a power block in which we do have influence, which in turn has global influence: the EU.
You think our EU partners look kindly on us as climate laggards? And you think this won’t have any effect on our standing within the EU?
I’m not going to bother with your rural vs urban nonsense, it’s just such a tired discussion.

@Urban Living Dublin: I’m so sorry to have bothered you ! I understand you are tired of hearing about rural life and the realities that your proposals will inflict on rural dwellers.

@Urban Living Dublin: I’d say the EU are slightly more concerned about the war in Ukraine to be honest. We get a few days of hot weather every summer and people lose their minds about global warming.

As for the urban rural divide, you can tell you’ve never set foot out of the North Inner City with your attitude. Thank god the Greens will be wiped out at the next election, they certainly won’t be missed!

@Dave Phelan: Nothing to do with urban or rural. We all have to pay for heat, light, transport, rent etc. One big difference is that the agricultural sector is massively subsidised…. No farmer could survive without it so it may be difficult but those subsidies should be used in the best possible way to support the farmers and at the same time not damage the environment. It may take a huge shift in mindset but some of our more progressive farmers are embracing it… It’s the only way forward.

@Jerriko17: We have the most carbon efficient beef and dairy sector in the world, so less of this “not damage the environment” nonsense.

@Jerriko17: you simply have not got a clue of the realities of rural living. Did you know that my standing charge for electricity is higher than urban users. I had to pay €600 just to get connected also. Taxes have gone up on home heating oil and bottled gas? I cannot access natural gas . I need a car as there is no public transport. You do realise that milk does not just appear in supermarkets? You are more dependent on the rural economy than you seem to understand

@Michael Clair: 186 people agree with you. I find that shocking. Every country in the world is making the same point as you and just like the Celtic Tiger debts, we pass them on to our children and children’s children. Does any one of those 186 people have children, to care enough about what future lies ahead for them. Thanks to us. Look at France and Spain and Portugal and the U.K. just yesterday. Every countries contribution matters and when you delve into the figures, you will see why. Currently countries are fined, which in my very humble opinion is a joke. When that is found not to be working, severe trade restrictions will probably be imposed and what we have now will be luxury in comparison. Targets are set for a reason and if each country complies then we are on the right road, if not then others will suffer because of our attitude towards our children’s future. I thought that was obvious but obviously it isn’t. Finally, if our imports are increasing, which they are, then the country of ‘manufacture’ are ‘ credited’ with the carbon emissions Obvious ??? So the 0.001% figure is a fairytale, just like Cowan and Mcconolgues methane emissions.

@Urban Living Dublin: No, it’s 0.001% check it out. The 0.1% was Green Party spin

@Urban Living Dublin: my my, dare anyone express a contrary opinion. Your arrogance and sarcasm is unbelievable. Btw it is 0.001% the Greens in their wisdom rounded it down to 0.1% to suit their agenda.

@Dave Phelan: I live in a rural area, something I CHOOSE to do. You chose to live where it costs 600eu to connect your electricity to your house that would be probably twice the price in an urban area!!! Move to the city if you think they’re getting a better deal !!! Mr Putin is responsible for the rise in price of your heating oil and bottled gas BTW NOT taxes !!!! Also… Most of the milk produced in Ireland is not consumed here!!!! Farmers can still make a living if they embrace change…. Subsidising them to produce stuff that’s damaging the planet is bonkers… Subsidise them to produce stuff that doesn’t, the money is there for it!!! Wrt dependency, farming wouldn’t exist without subsidies the oul cheque in the post!!!

@Madra: thankfully this is a whole-government agreement, and not just led by Ryan. FF, FG and the Greens may all have their own interests, but most politicians are not stupid enough to think that we should sit on our hands on this.

@C_O’S: Perpetual smirk.

@C_O’S:
The majority of the members of the Irish parliament are professional politicians, in the sense that otherwise they would not be given jobs minding mice at Crossroads.
Flann O’Brien.